Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Blog Tour: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

be sure to see my giveaway at the bottom of this post!!

rating: 5/5genre: memoir

I remember being in the hallway at church once talking with a friend who was pregnant and nearly due. While chatting, another woman came by and told my pregnant friend about how the only time she went overdue during a pregnancy, her baby was a stillborn. I was so offended and shocked that she would bring it up right then - obviously distressing my pregnant friend.

I wish I'd read this book before I had that experience. My view of that entire exchange has shifted.

Elizabeth and her husband were living a carefree and idyllic life in France. She finds out she is going to have a baby and this first pregnancy was spent in pastoral bliss. Life comes to a shattering halt, however, when her son is stillborn. We wade with Elizabeth through her grief and through the process of mourning not only the boy she lost, but the life together they might have had.

The writing is so crisp and with such biting wit. I had not anticipated a narration of such a somber subject to be so clever and tender. One minute I am weeping and the next I am laughing out loud. She guides us from her innermost raw emotions out into the world she had to navigate and the people she had to interact with after her baby died. Her experience validates the whole range of fears and hopes, anger and sorrow that one can experience when pregnant and when dealing with loss. Even those coping with a different kind of loss can find solace and communion:

...surely when tragedy has struck you dumb, you should be given a stack of cards that explains it for you. When Pudding died, I wanted my stack. I still want it. My first child was a stillborn, it would say on the front.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination takes us to a different side of pregnancy literature - providing a voice and a memory for those women who have likewise lost a child and carried that burden of grief. If I was standing with that friend now, the one who had lost her baby, I would hug her and sit down and listen to her story.

IT'S A CONTEST!!

FRIENDS - If you would like to WIN A COPY OF THIS BOOK (courtesy of the publisher) please leave a comment. If you put up a post on your blog about my contest (and link back to THIS POST), I'll enter your name again!! Make sure you leave another comment to let me know you've done it :) I'll announce the winner on Oct 7th.

***Follow along on the tour!! Your next stop is Antonette of Books in Every Room Please check it out!!***

I bumped into this blog tour by accident and have been "following" it backwards. It is quite an extraordinary event. Everyone is doing a beautiful job. I very much would like to read this book and appreciate the chance to win a copy. Elizabeth McCracken has been a favorite from way back.geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com

I was taken to the whole new world or stillborns when my sister in law had a full term sillborn three years ago. Since then I have known 3 others who have had stillborns. It is such a sad time. It would be great to have a copy that I could read and possibly pass on to friends who have dealt with this.